*Ahem*
I am the F&W queen. :king: I've been to every one. My first piece of advice, arrive early. My second, skip any dinner reservations that day. My third, either plan for multiple days (2 half days) or start early and take your time with one day.
Here is how it works:
The F&W festival is free with your EPCOT admission. Before 11 AM, only the festival welcome center in Innoventions West is open for wine tasting. After 11 AM, when World Showcase opens, there are approximately 20-25 countries (more than the World Showcase "official" countries) where wine/food/beer tasting is offered around the lagoon. The cost of a sample size portion of food/wine/beer is between $2 - $5.
So, you check out the guide, or stop by the booths and check out the offerings of each country. If it sounds good to you, you get in line and purchase your food/wine/and/or beer from that booth.
Please use common sense and skip wines from countries that are not known for wine (ie: Canada, unless it is Ice Wine; China; Norway; Morroco; etc.) The exception to this rule would be if Norway, for example, was offering California wines.
Note: When purchasing alcohol, you may only purchase as many glasses as the server can see adults for. In other words, 1 person can not purchase 2 glasses of wine/beer, unless a second person is standing near the booth and the server can see them.
There are some countries/regions that will have a more extensive exhibit in addition to their usual booth. Australia, for example will have a wine flight. You pay $10.00 and you receive a "passport". There are 5 little stands in the Australia area. Each stand will have 4-5 different brands of wine. You choose 5 little wine samples total that you wish to try. It may be 1 from each stand or 5 from one stand. When you have 5 stamps on your passport, you are done.
Additionally, there are complimentary seminars. For example, Charles Heidseck, or Castella de Banfi, or Villa Maria (or it may be countries: Australia, South Africa, or Spain) may be offering a seminar at 2:00 PM at the xyz location. You would need to get in line early for this seminar. Once it begins, they will tell you a bit about their company/vineyard/country and then give you 4-5 samples of the wines they offer.
There are also paid seminars that are more extensive, but until you've tried some of the complimentary ones and experienced the Festival, you don't need to worry about those.
Drink a lot of water. Take your time between booths. Sharing is a beautiful thing. I will get in line for Indaba Merlot and Saute'ed Chicken in South Africa while my friend will get in line for Prawns (shrimp) and Sauvignon Blanc in Australia. We will each sample the wines and the foods from the countries and if we find one we like a lot, we get in line for another helping.
Buy the cookbook. Some of the recipes are so simple to make at home.
And for goodness sake, take a video camera and/or notebook and write down your thoughts as you taste the food and wine.
:hammer: Surprise, Surprise, Surprise. You can't always remember what you liked and didn't like at the end of a long day of consuming alcohol.:hammer:
